<s^ 


GIFT  or 


^ 


The  Blackest  Page 

of 

Modern  History 

Events  in  Armenia  in  1915 
The  Facts  and  the  Responsibilities 


By 

Herbert  Adams  Gibbons,  Ph.D. 

Author  of 

"The  Foundation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,'*  "The 

New  Map  of  Europe,"  etc. 


G.  P,  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

XTbe    "Rnicfterbocftei:     press 

1916 


..-!T0 


\^^ 


Copyright,  1916 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Ube  Iknfcftetbocfjcr  press,  1Wew  12orR 


"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  Where  is 
Abel  thy  brother?  And  he  said,  I  know  not; 
am  I  my  brother's  keeper?" 

Genesis  iv.,  9. 


329929 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witin  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arclnive.org/details/blackestpageofmoOOgibbricln 


The  Blackest  Page  of 
Modern  History 


FOREWORD 

rllE  war  that  started  on  August  J, 
IQ14,  has  gradually  involved  na- 
tions, large  and  small,  not  origin- 
ally participants.  Other  nations,  large  and 
small,  while  still  managing  to  maintain 
an  official  neutrality,  have  found  them- 
selves drawn  into  diplomatic  controversies 
with  both  groups  of  belligerents.  With  the 
exception  of  South  America,  the  continents 
of  the  world  have  sent  contingents  to  fight 
in  Europe.  The  destinies  of  Africa,  Asia, 
and  Australia  are  at  stake,  and  the  destinies 


6  1  he  Blackest  Page 

oj  the  western  hemisphere  will,  long  before 
the  end  is  reached,  be  influenced  vitally  by 
the  tremendous  events  that  are  taking  place 
in  Europe.  We  can,  then,  without  exag- 
geration, call  the  war  that  was  provoked  by 
the  Austro-Hungarian  ultimatum  to  Servia, 
a  world  war. 

Still  in  the  midst  of  war,  still  prejudiced 
by  our  sympathies  and  our  interests,  neither 
participants  nor  spectators  are  in  a  position 
to  form  a  definitive  judgment  upon  the 
many  problems  of  the  origin  of  the  war,  and 
upon  controversial  points  that  have  arisen 
between  the  belligerents  and  between  belliger- 
ents and  neutrals,  because  of  acts  of  war. 

But  can  we  assume  the  attitude  of  suspend- 
ing judgment  in  regard  to  all  that  has  hap- 
pened since  August,  IQ14,  and  aU  that  is 
happening  to-day?  The  world  at  heart  is 
not  cold-blooded.     The  world  at  heart  is  not 


Of  Modern  History  7 

hopelessly  selfish.  The  world  at  heart  is 
not  deaf  to  the  appeal  of  the  iyiiiocent  and 
helpless.  Else  we  should  have  reason 
indeed  to  believe  in  the  complete  disappear- 
ance of  our  twentieth-century  Christian 
civilization.  If  some  issues  are  debat- 
able, if  some  events  are  obscure,  if  some 
charges  and  counter-charges  cannot  be 
determined,  there  are  others  that  can  be 
determined. 

It  is  because  the  Armenian  massacres 
in  Turkey  are  clearly  established,  because 
responsibilities  can  be  definitely  fixed,  ajid 
because  an  appeal  to  humanity  can  be  made 
on  behalf  of  the  remnant  of  the  Armenian 
race  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  without  the 
slightest  suspicion  of  political  interest,  that 
I  feel  it  advisable  and  imperative  at  this 
moment  to  call  attention  to  what  is  undoubt- 
edly the  blackest  page  in  modern  history,  to 


8    Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History 

set  forth  the  facts,  and  to  point  out  the 
responsibilities. 

Herbert  Adams  Gibbons. 

Paris,  December  i,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword      .......       5 

Introductory 11 

CHAPTER  I 

In  April,  19 15,  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment Began  to  Put  into  Execution 
throughout  Turkey  a  Systematic 
AND  Carefully-Prepared  Plan  to 
Exterminate  the  Armenian  Race. 
In  Six  Months  Nearly  a  Million 
Armenians  have  been  Killed.  The 
Number  of  the  Victims  and  the 
Manner  of  their  Destruction  are 
without  Parallel  in  Modern  History    i  7 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Armenians,  as  a  Race,  have  never 
been,  and  are  not,  a  menace  to  the 
Security  of  Turkey.  They  are 
Blameless  of  the  Charge  of  Dis- 
loyalty, WHICH  has  been  the  Excuse 
for  their  Massacre  and  Deportation  30 
9 


lo  Contents 


CHAPTER  III 


PAGE 


The  Preservation  of  the  Armenian 
Element  is  Absolutely  Indispensa- 
ble TO  the  Well-being  and  Pros- 
perity of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  It 
HAS  BEEN  Proved  through  Centuries 
THAT  Christians  and  Moslems  are 
Able  to  Live  in  Peace  and  Amity 
in  Turkey,  which  is  Equally  the 
Country  of  Both     .         .         .         .43 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  German  Government  could  have 
Prevented  this  Effort  at  Exter- 
minating the  Armenian  Race,  but 
has  Chosen  not  to  Do  so.  There  is 
Grave  Reason  to  Believe  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  Welcomed,  if 
NOT  Encouraged,  the  Disappear- 
ance of  the  Armenians  from  Asia 
Minor,  for  the  Furtherance  of 
German  Political  and  Commercial 
Designs  on  the  Ottoman  Empire      .     54 

Conclusion 65 

Sources 69 


INTRODUCTORY 

IN  the  summer  of  1908,  when  the 
Young  Turks  compelled  Abdul  Ha- 
mid  to  re-establish  the  constitution 
he  had  granted,  and  almost  immedi- 
ately suppressed,  at  the  beginning  of 
his  reign  thirty  years  before,  they  had 
a  good  press  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  Writers  of  all  nations  lauded  the 
Young  Ttirks,  and  described  in  glowing 
terms  the  wonderful  future  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire  under  the  regime  of  Liberty, 
Equality,  and  Fraternity.  The  goodwill 
of  Europe  and  America,  and  practical 
encouragement  as  well,  was  given  to  the 
reformers  of  Turkey  in  every  possible 

wp.y.     Especially    among    the     Powers, 
II 


12  The  Blackest  Page 

Great  Britain  and  France  aided  the 
Young  Turks  to  establish  the  new  regime 
by  lending  them  money  and  capable  ad- 
visers for  the  Treasury  and  Navy,  the 
two  departments  of  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment that  were  the  weakest. 

One  has  only  to  look  through  the 
files  of  the  newspapers  of  Occidental 
Europe  to  establish  the  truth  of  this 
statement.  As  one  of  the  group  of 
writers  for  the  European  and  American 
press  on  Turkish  affairs,  during  the  first 
difficult  (and  disappointing!)  years  of 
the  constitutional  regime,  I  can  say 
honestly  that  our  loyalt}^  to  the  Young 
Turks  was  unswerving.  In  the  hope  that 
the  end  would  justify  the  means,  I  am 
afraid  that  there  was  not  one  of  us  who 
did  not  occasionally  sin  against  his  own 
convictions  by  suppressio  verij  if  not  by 


Of  Modern  History  13 

actual  stiggestio  falsi.  Occidental  diplo- 
macy was  just  as  loyal  to  Young  Turkey 
as  was  Occidental  j  ournalism .  Successive 
Grand  Viziers  assured  me  that  the  loyal 
co-operation  of  London  and  Paris,  through 
willingness  to  forbear  criticism  and  to 
leave  much  unsaid,  had  made  possible 
the  maintenance  of  the  newly-established 
constitution  throughout  the  first  difficult 
winter,  and  the  weathering  of  the  storm 
of  Abdul  Hamid's  attempted  counter- 
revolution. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  go  to  Turkey  dur- 
ing the  first  month  of  the  new  regime,  and 
to  live  in  Asia  Minor  and  Constantino- 
ple until  after  the  disastrous  war  with 
the  Balkan  States.  From  1908  to  1913, 
I  enjoyed  exceptional  opportunities  of 
travelling  in  European  and  Asiatic 
Turkey,  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 


14  The  Blackest  Page 

men  who  were  guiding  the  destinies  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  of  witnessing 
the  fatal  events  that  changed  in  five 
years  the  hope  of  regeneration  into  the 
despair  of  dissolution.  At  Smyrna,  at 
Constantinople,  and  at  Beirut,  I  took 
part  in  the  f^tes  to  celebrate  the  birth 
of  the  new  regime,  and  saw  the  ostensible 
reconciliation  of  Christian,  Moslem,  and 
Jewish  elements.  Christian  priests  and 
Moslem  ulema  embraced  each  other  and 
drove  through  the  streets  in  triumphal 
procession  in  the  same  carriages. 

Above  all,  from  the  very  beginning,  I 
was  in  a  position  to  become  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  Armenians  of  Turkey 
and  to  find  out  their  real  sentiments 
towards  the  Young  Turks  and  the  new 
regime.  I  was  in  Adana,  in  April,  1909, 
when  their  enthusiastic  loyalty  was  re- 


Of  Modern  History  15 

warded  by  a  massacre  of  thirty  thou- 
sand of  them  in  Cilicia  and  northern 
Syria.  I  was  able  to  observe  the  attitude 
of  the  Armenians  before  the  massacre. 
Their  blood  was  spilled  before  my  eyes 
in  Adana.  I  was  with  them  in  different 
places  after  the  fury  of  the  massacre  had 
passed. 

This  preamble  in  the  first  person  is 
reluctantly  written.  But  I  feel  that  it 
must  be  given,  in  order  that  I  may  antici- 
pate exception  to  my  statements  on  the 
ground  that  I  am  "not  acquainted  with 
the  problem,"  and  that  "it  is  impossible 
for  an  outsider  to  form  a  judgment  on 
these  matters."  For  I  have  always 
found  that  the  Turk  and  his  friends  ^  when 
you  speak  to  them  on  the  Armenian 
question,  flatly  deny  your  facts  and 
challenge  the  competency  of  your  judg- 


1 6  Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History 

ment.  It  is  necessary,  then,  for  me  to 
state  that  the  facts  set  forth  here  are  given 
with  intimate  personal  knowledge  of  their 
authenticity,  and  that  the  judgments 
passed  upon  these  facts  are  the  result  of 
years  of  study  and  observation  at  close 
range. 


CHAPTER  I 

In  April,  191 5,  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment Began  to  Put  into  Execution 
throughout  Turkey  a  Systematic 
AND  Carefully-prepared  Plan  to 
Exterminate  the  Armenian  Race. 
In  Six  Months  Nearly  a  Million 
Armenians  have  been  Killed. 
The  Number  of  the  Victims  and 
the  Manner  of  their  Destruc- 
tion   ARE    WITHOUT     PARALLEL    IN 

Modern  History. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1914,  the  Turks  began 
to  mobilize  Christians  as  well  as 
Moslems    for    the    army.     For    six 

months,  in  every  part  of  Turkey,  they 
2  17 


i8  The  Blackest  Page 

called  upon  the  Armenians  for  military 
service.  Exemption  money  was  accepted 
from  those  who  could  pay.  A  few  weeks 
later  the  exemption  certificates  were  dis- 
regarded, and  their  holders  enrolled. 
The  younger  classes  of  Armenians,  who 
did  not  live  too  far  fromXonstantinople, 
were  placed,  as  in  the  Balkan  wars,  in  the 
active  army.  The  older  ones,  and  all  the 
Armenians  enrolled  in  the  more  distant 
regions,  were  utilized  for  road,  railway, 
and  fortification  building.  Wherever 
they  were  called,  and  to  whatever  task 
they  were  put,  the  Armenians  did  their 
duty,  and  worked  for  the  defence  of 
Turkey.  They  proved  themselves  brave 
soldiers  and  intelligent  and  industrious 
labourers. 

In  April,  1915,  orders  were   sent  out 
from  Constantinople  to  the  local  author- 


Of  Modern  History  19 

ities  in  Asia  Minor  to  take  whatever 
measures  were  deemed  best  to  paralyse 
in  advance  an  attempt  at  rebellion  on  the 
part  of  the  Armenians.  The  orders  im- 
pressed upon  the  local  authorities  that 
the  Armenians  were  an  extreme  dan- 
ger to  the  safety  of  the  empire,  and  sug- 
gested that  national  defence  demanded 
imperatively  anticipatory  severity  in 
order  that  the  Armenians  might  be 
rendered  harmless. 

In  some  places,  the  local  authorities 
replied  that  they  had  observed  no  sus- 
picious activity  on  the  part  of  the  Arme- 
nians and  reminded  the  Government  that 
the  Armenians  were  harmless  because  they 
possessed  no  arms  and  because  the  most 
vigorous  masculine  element  had  already 
been  taken  for  the  army.  There  are 
some  Turks  who  have  a  sense  of  pity 


20  The  Blackest  Page 

and  a  sense  of  shame !  But  the  majority 
of  the  Turkish  officials  responded  with 
alacrity  to  the  hint  from  Constantinople, 
and  those  who  did  not  were  very  soon 
replaced. 

A  new  era  of  Armenian  massacres 
began. 

At  first,  in  order  that  the  task  might  be 
accomplished  with  the  least  possible  risk, 
the  virile  masculine  Armenian  population 
still  left  in  the  cities  and  villages  was 
summoned  to  assemble  at  a  convenient 
place,  generally  outside  the  town,  and 
gendarmes  and  police  saw  to  it  that  the 
summons  was  obeyed.  None  was  over- 
looked. When  they  had  roimded  up  the 
Armenian  men,  they  butchered  them. 
This  method  of  procedure  was  generally 
feasible  in  small  places.  In  larger  cities, 
it  was  not  always  possible  to  fulfil  the 


Of  Modern  History  21 

orders  from  Constantinople  so  simply  and 
promptly.  The  Armenian  notables  were 
assassinated  in  the  streets  or  in  their 
homes.  If  it  was  an  interior  city,  the 
men  were  sent  off  under  guard  to ' '  another 
town. "  In  a  few  hours  the  guard  would 
return  without  their  prisoners.  If  it 
was  a  coast  city,  the  Armenians  were 
taken  away  in  boats  outside  the  har- 
bour to  ** another  port."  The  boats 
returned  astonishingly  soon  without  the 
passengers. 

Then,  in  order  to  prevent  the  possibil- 
ity of  trouble  from  Armenians  mobilized 
for  railway  and  road  construction,  they 
were  divided  in  companies  of  from  three 
hundred  to  five  hundred  and  put  to  work 
at  intervals  of  several  miles.  Regiments 
of  the  Turkish  regular  army  were  sent 
"to  put  down  the  Armenian  revolution, '* 


22  The  Blackest  Page 

and  came  suddenly  upon  the  little  groups 
of  workers  plying  pickaxe,  crowbar,  and 
shovel.  The  *' rebels"  were  riddled  with 
bullets  before  they  knew  what  was 
happening.  The  few  who  managed  to 
flee  were  followed  by  moimted  men,  and 
shot  or  sabred. 

Telegrams  began  to  pour  in  upon 
Talaat  bey  at  Constantinople,  announc- 
ing that  here,  there,  and  everywhere 
Armenian  uprisings  had  been  put  down, 
and  telegrams  were  returned,  congratu- 
lating the  local  officials  upon  the  success 
of  their  prompt  measures.  To  neutral 
newspaper  men  at  Constantinople,  to 
neutral  diplomats,  who  had  heard  vaguely 
of  a  recurrence  of  Armenian  massacres, 
this  telegraphic  correspondence  was  shown 
as  proof  that  an  imminent  danger  had 
been  averted.     "We  have  not  been  cruel. 


Of  Modern  History  23 

but  we  admit  having  been  severe/*  de- 
clared Talaat  bey.     * '  This  is  war  time. '  * 

Having  thus  rid  themselves  of  the 
active  manhood  of  the  Armenian  race, 
the  Turkish  Government  still  felt  uneasy. 
The  old  men  and  boys,  the  women  and 
children,  were  an  element  of  danger 
to  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  Armeni- 
ans must  be  rooted  out  of  Turkey.  But 
how  accomplish  this  in  such  a  way  that 
the  Turkish  Ambassador  at  Washington 
and  the  German  newspapers  might  be 
able  to  say,  as  they  have  said  and  are  still 
saying,  '*A11  those  who  have  been  killed 
were  of  that  rebellious  element  caught 
red-handed  or  while  otherwise  commit- 
ting traitorous  acts  against  the  Turkish 
Government,  and  not  women  and  children, 
as  some  of  these  fabricated  reports  would ' 
have  the  Americans  believe?*'     Talaat 


24  The  Blackest  Page 

bey  was  ready  with  his  plan.  Deporta- 
tion— a  regrettable  measure,  a  military 
necessity — but  perfectly  humane. 

From  May  until  October  the  Ottoman 
Government  pursued  methodically  a  plan 
of  extermination  far  more  hellish  than  the 
worst  possible  massacre.  Orders  for  de- 
portation of  the  entire  Armenian  popu- 
lation to  Mesopotamia  were  despatched 
to  every  province  of  Asia  Minor.  These 
orders  were  explicit  and  detailed.  No 
hamlet  was  too  insignificant  to  be  missed. 
The  news  was  given  by  town  criers  that 
eroery  Armenian  was  to  be  ready  to  leave 
at  a  certain  hour  for  an  unknown  desti- 
nation. There  were  no  exceptions  for 
the  aged,  the  ill,  the  women  in  pregnancy. 
Only  rich  merchants  and  bankers  and 
good-looking  women  and  girls  were  al- 
lowed   to  escape    by    professing    Islam, 


Of  Modern  History  25 

and  let  it  be  said  to  their  everlasting 
honour  that  few  availed  themselves  of 
this  means  of  escape.  The  time  given 
varied  from  two  days  to  six  hours.  No 
household  goods,  no  animals,  no  extra 
clothing  could  be  taken  along.  Food 
supply  and  bedding  was  limited  to  what 
a  person  could  carry.  And  they  had  to 
go  on  foot  under  the  burning  sun  through 
parched  valleys  and  over  snow-covered 
mountain  passes,  a  journey  of  from  three 
to  eight  weeks. 

When  they  passed  through  Christian 
villages  where  the  deportation  order 
had  not  yet  been  received,  the  travellers 
were  not  allowed  to  receive  food  or 
ministrations  of  any  sort.  The  sick  and 
the  aged  and  the  wee  children  fell  by  the 
roadside,  and  did  not  rise  again.  Women 
in  childbirth  were  urged  along  by  bayo- 


26  The  Blackest  Page 

nets  and  whips  until  the  moment  of  de- 
liverance came,  and  were  left  to  bleed 
to  death.  The  likely  girls  were  seized 
for  harems,  or  raped  day  after  day  by  the 
guards  until  death  came  as  a  merciful 
release.  Those  who  could  committed 
suicide.  Mothers  went  crazy,  and  threw 
their  children  into  the  river  to  end  their 
sufferings.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
women  and  children  died  of  hunger,  of 
thirst,  of  exposure,  of  shame. 

The  pitiful  caravans  thinned  out,  first 
daily,  and  later  hourly.  Death  be- 
came the  one  thing  to  be  longed  for:  for 
how  can  hope  live,  how  can  strength 
remain,  even  to  the  fittest,  in  a  journey 
that  has  no  end?  And  if  they  turned 
to  right  or  left  from  that  road  to  hell, 
they  were  shot  or  speared.  Kurds  and 
mounted    peasants   hunted    down  those 


Of  Modern  History  2^ 

who  succeeded  in  escaping  the  roadside 
guards. 

They  are  still  putting  down  the  Arme- 
nian revolution  out  there  in  Asia  Minor. 
I  had  just  written  the  above  paragraph 
when  an  English  woman  whom  I  have 
known  for  many  years  came  to  my  home. 
She  left  Adana,  in  Cilicia,  only  a  month 
ago.  Her  story  is  the  same  as  that  of 
a  hundred  others.  I  have  the  identical 
facts,  one  eye-witness  testimony  corrobo- 
rating the  other,  from  American,  English, 
German,  and  Swiss  sources.  This  English 
woman  said  to  me,  "The  deportation  is 
still  going  on.  From  the  interior  along 
the  Bagdad  Railway  they  are  still  being 
sent  through  Adana  on  the  journey  of 
death.  As  far  as  the  railway  exists,  it  is 
being  used  to  hurry  the  work  of  extermin- 
ation faster  than  the  caravans  from  the 


28  The  Blackest  Page 

regions  where  there  are  no  railways. 
Oh!  if  they  would  only  massacre  them, 
and  be  done  with  it,  as  in  the 
Hamidian  days!  I  stood  there  at 
the  Adana  railway  station,  and  from 
the  carriages  the  women  would  hold 
up  their  children,  and  cry  for  water. 
They  had  got  beyond  a  desire  for 
bread.  Only  water!  There  was  a 
pump.  I  went  down  on  my  knees  to 
beg  the  Turkish  guard  to  let  me  give 
them  a  drink.  But  the  train  moved  on, 
and  the  last  I  heard  was  the  cry  of  those 
lost  souls.  That  was  not  once.  It  was 
almost  every  day  the  same  thing.  Did 
Lord  Bryce  say  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand? Well,  it  must  be  a  million  now. 
Could  you  conceive  of  human  beings 
allowing  wild  animals  to  die  a  death 
like  that?'* 


Of  Modern  History  29 

But  the  Turkish  Ambassador  in  Wash- 
ington declares  that  these  stories  are 
"fabrications, "  and  that  "no  women  and 
children  have  been  killed. " 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Armenians,  as  a  Race,  have 
never  been,  and  are  not,  a  men- 
ACE TO  THE  Security  of  Turkey. 
They  ARE  Blameless  of  the  Charge 
OF  Disloyalty,  which  has  been 
THE  Excuse  for  their  Massacre 
AND  Deportation. 

IN  commenting  upon  the  report  of  the 
American  Committee,  on  Armenian 
Atrocities,  Djelal  Munif  bey,  the 
Turkish  Consul- General  in  New  York, 
declared:  "However  much  to  be  deplored 
may  be  these  harrowing  events  in  the 
last  analysis,  we  can  but  say  the  Arme- 
nians have  only  themselves  to  blame." 
30 


Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History  31 

Djelal  Miinif  bey  went  on  to  explain  that 
the  Armenians  had  been  planning  a 
revolution,  and  were  killed  by  the  Turkish 
soldiers  only  after  they  had  been  caught 
"red-handed  with  arms  in  their  hands, 
resisting  lawful  authority.'* 

This  has  been  the  invariable  explan- 
ation for  the  massacre  of  Armenians  in 
Turkey.  We  heard  it  in  1 895-1 896  and 
in  1909.  We  have  been  hearing  it  again 
in  191 5.  But  facts  to  substantiate  it 
have  never  been  given.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  exists  overwhelming  evi- 
dence of  the  most  convincing  character 
to  show  how  inadmissible  it  is  as  an  ex- 
planation, how  baseless  it  is  as  a  charge. 

I  have  talked  personally  with,  or  have 
seen  letters  and  reports  from,  American 
missionaries  and  consular  officials  of  all 
nations,  who  were  witnesses  of  the  massa- 


32  The  Blackest  Page 

cres  of  1895  and  1896.  At  that  time,  as 
a  result  of  unendurable  persecution  and 
injustice,  certain  organizations  of  young 
men,  of  the  type  the  French  call  exaltes, 
banded  together  in  secret  societies,  an 
imitation  of  internal  organizations  in 
Russia,  agitated,  within  the  Ottoman 
Empire  and  abroad,  for  a  more  favour- 
able treatment  of  Armenians  and  other 
Christians.  Some  of  these  exaltes  cer- 
tainly advocated,  and  tried  to  work  for, 
the  independence  of  Armenia.  But  the 
propaganda  never  gained  favour  in 
ecclesiastical  circles,  nor  ground  among 
the  great  mass  of  the  Armenian  popula- 
tion in  Turkey.  Except  in  the  vilayet 
of  Van,  the  Armenians  no  longer  formed 
the  majority  of  the  population.  They 
were  too  scattered  throughout  the  empire 
to  have  serious  hope  of  winning  independ- 


Of  Modern  History  33 

ence,  such  as  the  Greeks,  Bulgarians, 
Servians,  and  Rumanians  had  succeeded 
in  obtaining  in  the  Balkan  peninsula.' 
In  the  1909  massacre,  I  was  on  the 
ground  at  the  time,  and  studied  these 
charges.  I  demonstrated  to  my  own 
satisfaction  (and  to  that  of  a  number  of 
newspaper  men,  including  Germans)  the 

^  I  do  not  mean  by  this  statement  to  deny  that  the  edu- 
cated Armenians,  just  as  every  other  people  under  the 
yoke  of  another  race,  have  not  longed,  in  their  most  inti- 
mate sentiments,  for  the  day  when  national  aspirations 
would  be  realized.  But,  the  Armenians  are  above  all  a 
practical  people,  and  they  did  not  look  for  what  they  knew 
was  impossible  of  realization.  In  the  correspondence 
concerning  Armenian  people  in  the  Chancelleries  of  the 
Great  Powers  and  in  the  archives  of  the  Sublime  Porte, 
the  question  has  always  been  to  obtain  reforms  that  would 
secure  for  the  Armenians  only  those  privileges  and  only  that 
measure  of  security  and  freedom,  to  which  they  had  the  right 
as  Ottoman  subjects  to  aspire.  In  19 13,  the  Powers,  among 
whom  was  Germany,  proposed  to  the  Turkish  Government 
a  plan  for  reforms  in  Asia  Minor,  which  was  accepted  and 
decreed  by  Turkey,  but  which  was  not  put  into  execution. 
Up  to  the  time  of  this  terrible  crime  of  the  past  few  months, 
the  Armenians  demanded,  and  were  glad  to  have  obtained 
in  Turkey,  only  those  reforms  that  Turkey  had  agreed 
herself  to  put  into  effect. 


34  The  Blackest  Page 

total  lack  of  foundation  of  this  charge 
against  the  Armenians  of  Cilicia.  Not  one 
Armenian  out  of  a  himdred  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  revolutionary  societies. 
The  lower  classes  were  too  ignorant  to 
be  affected  by  such  a  propaganda.  The 
Armenian  Church  denounced  the  folly 
of  the  visionaries.  College  professors 
spoke  and  wrote  against  it.  The  wealthy 
city  classes  frankly  let  the  agitators  know 
that  they  were  not  only  passively,  but 
also  actively,  opposed  to  the  propaganda. 
The  Turks  had  nothing  whatever  to 
fear  from  Armenian  revolutionaries.  They 
knew  this.  More  than  that,  they  knew 
just  who  the  exaltes  were.  The  Turkish 
Government  was  well  able  to  assure  itself 
that  the  propagandists  were  not  to  be 
feared.  If  they  had  feared  them,  they 
could  easily  have   laid  their  hands  on 


Of  Modern  History  35 

them  any  time  they  wanted  to.  In 
Adana,  the  arrest  of  from  thirty  to  forty 
young  men  would  have  gathered  into  the 
net  all  the  agitators.  Instead  of  that, 
six  thousand  were  massacred  there,  and 
half  the  city  burned.  Then  the  Arme- 
nian revolution  was  trumped  up  as  an 
excuse! 

The  hideous  miscarriage  of  justice  of 
the  court  martial  after  the  Adana  mas- 
sacre was  the  beginning  of  the  downfall 
of  the  Young  Turk  regime.  It  was  a 
demonstration  of  the  mockery  of  the 
Young  Ttirk  assertion  that  the  Ottoman 
Empire  was  to  be  reconstructed  on  the 
principles  of  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fra- 
ternity. From  that  day  to  this,  their  every 
act  has  given  the  lie  to  their  profession. 
I  say  hideous  miscarriage  of  justice,  be- 
cause no  element  in  the  empire  had  wel- 


36  The  Blackest  Page 

corned  more  heartily  the  advent  of  the 
constitutional  regime,  no  element  had 
supported  the  Young  Turks  more  loyally 
than  the  Armenians.  If  they  erred  at  all 
during  those  first  nine  months  of  the 
constitutional  era,  it  was  in  showing  so 
openly — and  so  joyously — ^their  touching 
faith  in  the  men  of  Salonika.  They 
accepted  the  revolution  as  sincere.  Their 
support  of  the  new  regime  was  sponta- 
neous and  enthusiastic.  They  believed 
in  the  Young  Turks — until  they  were 
undeceived  by  the  Young  Turks  them- 
selves. 

After  the  massacre  had  stopped,  on 
word  from  Constantinople,  I  heard  a  Young 
Turk  officer  address  the  survivors  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  American  Mission  at 
Tarsus.  He  assured  them  that  the  danger 
was  over,  that  it  had  been  due  to  the 


Of  Modern  History  37 

counter-revolution  of  Abdul  Hamid,  and 
that  now  they  might  feel  assured  that 
Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity  were 
really  theirs.  He  told  the  Armenians 
that  the  Young  Turks  had  suffered 
equally  with  them,  and  that  they  had 
been  companions  in  misfortune.  With 
sublime  faith,  sublime  even  though  stupid, 
the  bulk  of  the  Armenians  believed  once 
more.  They  accepted  the  explanation^  of 
the  massacre,  and  continued  to  support 
the  Ottoman  Government. 

Dining  the  four  years  after  Adana,  I 
spent  most  of  my  time  in  Constantinople, 
and  I  was  constantly  with  the  leaders  of 
the  Armenian  race.  Never  once  did  I 
hear  an  Armenian  ecclesiastic  or  other 
Armenian  of  weight  and  reputation  speak 
against  the  Ottoman  Government.  I 
know    positively    that    they    were    not 


38  The  Blackest  Page 

working  against  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  I  am  sure 
that  the  Turks  knew  they  could  count  on 
the  loyal  support  and  co-operation  of  the 
Armenians.  The  Turks  had  proof  of 
Armenian  loyalty  during  the  Italian  war 
and  the  two  Balkan  wars.  Armenians, 
enrolled  in  the  Turkish  army,  fought 
bravely  for  the  common  fatherland  beside 
their  Moslem  brethren.  In  the  hour  of 
danger  and  humiliation,  the  Armenians 
of  Turkey  stood  by  their  fellow  Ottoman 
subjects.  They  gave  their  blood  for 
Turkey.  Unlike  the  Ottoman  Greeks, 
they  could  be  suspected  of  no  secret 
wishes  for  the  success  of  the  enemy. 

It  is  unfair  for  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment to  cite,  as  basis  for  its  charges  against 
its  Armenian  subjects,  the  fact  that 
Armenians  in  large  numbers  are  fighting 


Of  Modern  History  39 

in  the  Russian  army.  As  a  result  of  the 
war  of  1877,  Turkey  was  compelled  to 
cede  a  portion  of  Armenia  to  Russia. 
The  Armenians  of  these  territories  and 
of  the  Caucasus  have  been  for  nearly 
forty  years  under  Russian  rule,  and 
are  naturally,  as  Russian  subjects, 
fighting  against  Turkey.  In  giving  the 
fact  that  there  are  Armenians  in  the 
Russian  armies  as  a  reason  for  doubt- 
ing the  loyalty  of  the  Armenians  in 
Turkey,  the  Turks  and  their  German 
apologists  have  traded  upon  European 
and  American  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
history  and  geography  of  the  regions 
beyond  Van.  The  formation  of  corps  of 
Armenian  volunteers  in  the  Allied  armies, 
and  the  open  support  of  the  cause  of  the 
Allies  on  the  part  of  Armenian  commu- 
nities in  France  and  Great  Britain  have 


40  The  Blackest  Page 

been  unfortunate.  As  individuals  who 
have  left  Turkey,  these  exiled  Armenians 
have  a  right  to  do  as  they  choose,  as 
communities,  it  would  have  been — it  is 
now — better  for  them  to  keep  quiet. 
Although  they  have  no  justification  for 
doing  so,  the  Turks  and  Germans  have 
been  using  the  manifestations  made  by 
these  small  communities  outside  of  Tur- 
key as  reflecting  the  spirit  and  intentions 
of  the  Armenians  in  Turkey,  and  have 
succeeded  in  confusing  many  neutrals 
about  the  real  facts  of  the  Armenian 
situation. 

If  the  Armenians,  during  the  present 
massacres  and  forcible  deportations,  have 
in  some  places,  as  they  did  in  Adana  in 
1909,  defended,  arms  in  hand,  their  homes 
and  their  loved  ones,  it  has  been  only 
when  the   Ottoman   Government  failed 


Of  Modern  History  41 

them,  and  when  they  were  convinced  that 
their  extermination  had  been  decided 
upon.  Even  in  these  cases,  as  at  Adana, 
when  they  received  assurances  of  pro- 
tection against  local  Moslem  fanaticism 
from  the  Government  at  Constantinople, 
they  trusted  once  more.  In  every  in- 
stance of  this  kind — again  let  me  re- 
mind my  readers  that  I  have  authentic 
eye-witness  testimony — their  faith  was 
betrayed.  The  Ottoman  Government 
officials  broke  their  word,  and  butchered 
the  Armenians  after  they  had  laid  down 
their  arms. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  Van, 
there  was  no  place  where  the  Turks  had 
the  slightest  ground  for  suspicion  that 
the  local  attempt  of  the  Armenians  to 
defend  their  wives  and  children  was  in 
connivance  with  the  enemy.     And  Van 


42  Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History 

is  only  one  of  thirty  centres  of  massacre  and 
deportation  in  Asia  Minor! 

If  the  Ottoman  Government  has  facts 
to  estabhsh  its  contention  that  the  Arme- 
nians of  Turkey  were  plotting  against  the 
security  of  the  empire,  let  it  lay  these 
facts  before  the  world. 


CHAPTER  III, 

The  Preservation  of  the  Armenian 
Element  is  Absolutely  Indispens- 
able TO  THE  Well-being  and 
Prosperity  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire. It  has  been  Proved  through 
Centuries  that  Christians  and 
Moslems  are  Able  to  Live  in 
Peace  and  Amity  in  Turkey,  which 
is  Equally  the  Country  of  Both. 

ONE  hesitates,  on  general  principles, 
to  attempt  to  advise,  or  to  ad- 
monish, as  to  its  best  interests, 
a  nation  at  war.     In  a  life  and  death 
struggle  such  as  this  war  has  become, 
it  would  be  naturally  supposed  that  a 

.43 


44  The  Blackest  Page 

nation  and  its  rulers  are  the  best  judges 
of  what  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do. 
Advice  from  outside  sources  is  open  to  the 
suspicion  of  being  not  disinterested.  And 
does  not  admonition,  if  not  sheer  imperti- 
nence, betray  impotence  on  the  part  of 
the  admonisher? 

But  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  the  situ- 
ation is  different  from  that  of  any  other 
country  in  Europe.  There  is  not  a 
sufficient  number  of  educated  men  among 
the  non-Christian  elements  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire  to  form,  let  alone  to  guide, 
public  opinion.  Consequently,  there  is 
no  public  opinion.  The  governing  power 
has  always  been  in  the  hands  of  a  small 
and  corrupt  circle,  and  the  Ottoman 
nation  has  not  developed  in  self-govern- 
ment, in  popular  institutions,  as  have  the 
other  nations  of  Europe. 


Of  Modern  History  45 

The  new  regime  was  hailed  with  joy 
by  the  outside  world,  and  by  the  non- 
Moslem  elements  inside  the  empire  as 
well,  because  the  Constitution  of  1908  was 
regarded  as  the  starting  point  in  a  struggle 
of  the  people  of  the  empire,  irrespective 
of  religion  and  race,  against  an  absolutism 
that  had  in  practice  proved  equally  inju- 
rious, if  not  equally  oppressive,  to  all  the 
races  subjected  to  the  tyranny  of  Yildiz 
Kiosk. 

It  was  very  soon  seen,  however,  that 
Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity  had  no 
part  whatever  in  the  Young  Turk  con- 
ception of  a  constitutional  state.  It 
was  simply  the  replacing  of  one  clique 
by  another.  The  honest,  sincere  Young 
Turks,  with  motives  above  suspicion,  who 
actually  meant  what  they  said,  were  so 
few  in  number  that  they  could  not  prevail 


46  The  Blackest  Page 

against  the  type  in  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  personified  by  such 
men  as  Talaat,  Enver,  Djavid,  Djemal, 
Hairi,  Ahmed  Riza,  Dr.  Nazim,  Hadji 
Adil,  Bedri,  and  Hussein  Djahid.  The 
Moslem  population  of  the  empire,  being 
intensely  ignorant,  could  not  be  looked 
to  by  the  few  enthusiasts  to  support 
constitutional  principles.  The  Christian 
population,  much  better  educated  and 
having  much  more  reason  to  appreciate 
the  newly-proclaimed  liberty,  were  the 
only  elements  upon  which  a  politically 
regenerated  Turkey  could  stand.  For 
this  reason  alone  did  the  Armenian  element 
become  immediately  a  source  of  danger  to 
the  new  digue  that  had  replaced  Abdul 
Hamid,  These  so-called  Young  Turks 
turned  upon  the  Armenians  just  as 
Abdul  Hamid  had  turned  upon  them — to 


Of  Modern  History  47 

prevent  their  becoming  the  leaven  in  the 
regeneration  of  Turkey.  The  Constitu- 
tion, hailed  by  the  Armenians  as  the 
beginning  of  their  political  emancipation, 
became  almost  immediately — and  inevi- 
tably— their  death-warrant. 

One  does  not  need  to  study  deeply,  one 
has  simply  to  read  the  history  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  since  Great  Britain  and 
France  saved  the  Turks  by  the  Crimean 
War,  to  realize  that  the  Armenians,  from 
the  moment  the  question  of  ** reforms" 
was  introduced  by  the  Powers  in  their 
dealings  with  the  Sublime  Porte,  have 
been  the  unwitting  victims  of  the 
cause  of  civilization  in  the  Near  East. 
The  Congress  of  Berlin  fully  recognized 
this  fact. 

The  trans-Caucasian  policy  of  Russia, 
and  the  Balkan  policy  of  all  the  Great 


48  The  Blackest  Page 

Powers  first  awakened,  and  has  since 
been  the  exciting  cause  of,  the  fanaticism 
of  the  Moslems  of  Turkey  against  the 
Armenians.  Before  there  was  an  acute 
'* Question  of  the  Orient,'*  did  we  ever 
have  great  Armenian  massacres?  And 
yet,  Christian  Europe  never  made  a  con- 
certed effort  to  save  this  unhappy  race 
from  the  results  of  Europe's  own  dealings 
with  the  Turks. 

The  Armenians,  of  course,  always  suf- 
fered to  a  certain  extent  from  their  social 
and  political  disabilities  under  Moslem 
rule.  But  they  have  lived  for  centuries 
in  comparative  security,  and  certainly 
with  a  large  measure  of  prosperity,  as 
Ottoman  subjects.  Personal  relations  be- 
tween Turks  and  Armenians  have  been 
not  at  all  bad.  I  have  had  opportunity 
to  observe  this  fact  in  different  parts  of 


Of  Modern  History  49 

Turkey.  The  Ttirks  are  not,  like  the 
Arabs,  a  fanatical  people  by  nature.  The 
persecution  and  massacre  of  Armenians  is 
not,  as  the  general  European  and  Amer- 
ican public  have  erroneously  thought,  an 
age-old  matter  of  religious  strife.  Nor 
has  it  been,  as  is  so  frequently  asserted  by 
those  who  have  the  effrontery  to  explain 
and  attempt  to  condone  (ye  gods!) 
Armenian  massacres,  because  the  Arme- 
nians are  money-lenders  and  oppress  the 
simple-minded  Turks.  The  refutation  of 
the  first  of  these  two  prevalent  beliefs  is 
that  the  great  Armenian  massacres  are 
events  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
while  Armenians  and  Turks  have  been 
living  together  in  Asia  Minor  nearly  seven 
centuries.  The  refutation  of  the  second 
is  that  the  massacres  have  not  been  con- 
fined to  the  larger  cities,  where  many  of 


50  The  Blackest  Page 

the  Armenians  are  well-to-do,  but  have 
always  taken  place  in  exactly  the  same 
way  and  in  exactly  the  same  degree  in 
communities  where  the  Armenians  are 
both  ignorant  and  poverty-stricken. 

Nothing  is  more  stupid,  nothing  more 
against  nature  and  history,  than  advocat- 
ing that  the  solution  of  the  Armenian 
question  and  salvation  of  the  Armenian 
race  is  in  emigration  en  masse  to  America 
or  some  other  country.  The  Armenians 
are  an  indigenous  element  in  Asiatic 
Turkey.  Their  wholesale  emigration 
might  save  the  lives  of  several  hundred 
thousand  individuals.  But  it  V\'Ould 
break  the  hearts  of  most  of  those  who 
were  thus  saved,  and  it  would  mark  the 
disappearance  of  the  Armenians  as  a 
race  and  a  nation,  just  as  certainly  as 
if  their  extermination  by  massacre  were 


Of  Modern  History  51 

completed.  What  has  the  Armenian  race 
done  that  it  should  disappear?  And 
is  not  jtcs  soli  as  strong  as  the  jus  patris — 
especially  in  lands  where  there  is  sun- 
shine? 

The  preservation  of  the  Armenian 
element  in  Asia  Minor  is  indispensable 
to  the  well-being  and  prosperity  of  the 
Turks  themselves.  Politically,  as  well  as 
economically,  it  is  impossible  for  the 
Turks  to  continue  to  exist  as  an  inde- 
pendent, and  in  any  measure  at  all  self- 
supporting,  nation  without  the  help  of  the 
Armenians.  The  Armenian  massacres 
illustrate  the  old  story  of  killing  the  goose 
that  laid  the  golden  egg.  In  their  pitiful 
Ignorance,  in  their  frenzy  of  blood-lust, 
the  Turks  are  turning  upon  and  destroy- 
ing those  whose  existence  is  precious  and 
vital  to  their  community  and  national 


52  The  Blackest  Page 

life.  Travel  where  you  will  through 
Turkey,  from  one  end  of  the  great  empire 
to  the  other,  and  you  find  no  community 
that  is  prosperous  without  Armenians. 
Along  the  seacoast,  the  Greeks  play  an 
important  part  in  the  economic  life  of 
Turkey.  But  in  the  interior  the  Arme- 
nians are  a  sine  qua  non  to  the  Turks. 

Of  the  Armenians  in  Turkey  one  might 
have  said  without  fear  of  contradiction 
before  the  terrible  events  of  the  past  six 
months,  that  they  were  in  no  place 
numerically  strong  enough  to  jeopardize 
the  political  independence  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  but  that  they  were  everywhere 
in  sufficient  number  to  guarantee  its 
economic  independence. 

Intelligent  and  patriotic  Turks  must 
certainly  see  that  the  attempt  to  exter- 
minate the  Armenians,  or  to  banish  the 


Of  Modern  History  53 

remnant  of  them  from  Asia  Minor,  is  a 
mortal  blow  to  Turkish  independence, 
political  as  well  as  economic.  The  exter- 
mination of  the  Armenians  is  to  the 
interest  of  a  certain  nation — but  that 
nation  is  not  Turkey! 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  German  Government  could  have 
Prevented  this  Effort  at  Exter- 
minating THE  Armenian  Race,  but 
HAS  Chosen  not  to  Do  so.  There  is 
Grave  Reason  to  Believe  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  Welcomed,  if 
NOT  Encouraged,  the  Disappear- 
ance OF  THE  Armenians  from  Asia 
Minor,  for  the  Furtherance  of 
German  Political  and  Commercial 
Designs  on  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

A  PATRIOTIC  German  woman  wrote 
from  Marash  on  June  4,  1915, 
to  the  Sonnenaufgang,  organ  of 

the  Deutscher  Htllfsbund  ftir  christliches 
54 


Blackest  Page  of  Modern.  History  55 

Liebeswerk  ini  Orient:  ''Oh,  if  we  could 
write  all  that  we  are  seeing!"  German 
missionaries  in  Asia  Minor  have  been 
fully  as  horror-stricken,  fully  as  sym- 
pathetic, and  fully  as  indignant  as  the 
missionaries  of  other  nations.  And  I  have 
no  doubt  that  there  are  millions  of  Ger- 
mans to-day,  who,  //  they  were  allowed  to 
know  the  truth,  would  protest  bitterly  to 
their  Government  against  the  extermin- 
ation of  the  Armenian  nation,  and  peti- 
tion their  Government,  in  the  name  of 
God,  to  do  something  to  prevent  Ger- 
many from  being  stigmatized  in  history 
as  partner  in  the  awful  crimes  that  are 
being  committed  in  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
It  has  been  shown  that  there  never  has 
been,  and  that  there  is  not  now,  reason 
for  Moslem  fanaticism  against  the  Arme- 
nian race.     Of  their  own  initiative,  with- 


56  The  Blackest  Page 

out  the  direct  command  and  incitement 
of  the  authorities  and  without  the  help 
of  the  soldiery  and  gendarmery,  Turks 
have  never  massacred  Armenians.  Since, 
then,  this  effort  to  exterminate  the  Arme- 
nian race,  made  everywhere  in  Asiatic 
Turkey  at  the  same  moment,  has  been 
due  to  a  systematic  scheme,"organized  and 
directed  from  Constantinople,  we  must 
seek  the  responsibility  among  the  officials 
of  the  Turkish  Government  at  Constanti- 
nople. The  deliberate,  minutely-planned 
Armenian  massacres  and  deportations, 
carried  on  without  interruption  from 
April  to  November,  19 15,  must  have  been 
conceived  by  someone,  ordered  by  some- 
one, and  perpetrated  for  some  purpose. 

Conceived  by  whom?  Ordered  by 
whom?     Perpetrated  for  what  purpose? 

The  conception  is  not  new.     It  has  been 


Of  Modern  History  57 

explained  above  that  the  Armenians 
drew  upon  themselves  the  distrust  and 
the  hatred  of  the  Young  Turks  because 
they  took  the  Young  Turks  seriously, 
and  believed  that  the  Constitution  was 
to  be  a  real  constitution.  The  Adana 
massacre  was  the  first  effort  on  the  part 
of  those  who  usurped  Abdul  Hamid's 
policy  and  methods  when  they  usurped 
his  authority,  to  destroy  the  Armenians. 
Back  in  those  days  I  heard  more  than  one 
prominent  Young  Turk  give  hearty  assent 
to  the  hon  mot  that  was  then  going  the 
rounds,  ^'The  only  way  to  get  rid  of 
the  Armenian  question  is  to  get  rid  of  the 
Armenians!*'  To  finish  the  work  begun 
at  Adana  has  been  a  political  ideal  for  six 
years.  The  opportunity  for  realization 
came.  It  was  seized  immediately. 
When  the  attack  of  the  Allies  against  the 


58  The  Blackest  Page 

Dardanelles  was  begun,  it  was  common 
knowledge  at  Constantinople  that  the  death- 
warrant  of  the  Armenian  race,  long  ago 
signed  and  put  aside  in  the  pigeon-holes 
of  the  Sublime  Porte  and  the  Seraskerat, 
would  be  brought  out  and  put  into  execution. 
Is  it  possible  to  believe  that  the  German 
Embassy  was  ignorant  of  this,  and  that 
Talaat  bey  gave  the  orders  without  hav- 
ing informed  Baron  von  Wangenheim? 
Is  it  possible  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment at  Berlin  did  not  know  of  the  plan, 
even  if  their  representative  at  Con- 
stantinople failed  to  inform  them?  Here 
are  the  facts. 

The  extermination  of  a  million  and  a 
half  innocent,  loyal  to  a  fault,  Christian 
subjects  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  was 
planned  at,  and  ordered  from,  Con- 
stantinople. 


Of  Modern  History  59 

At  Constantinople,  the  one  man  whose 
word,  supported  by  his  Government, 
would  have  prevented  the  orders  from 
going  out,  was  the  German  Ambassador. 

Although  he  may  not  have  known  dur- 
ing the  first  week  or  two,  the  German 
Ambassador  was  pled  with,  long  before  it 
was  too  late,  to  use  the  influence  of  Ger- 
many to  put  a  stop  to  what  was  to  prove 
the  blackest  page  of  modem  history. 

Since  Germany  refused  to  intervene 
before  the  extermination  of  the  Arme- 
nians started,  is  she  not  accessory  before 
the  fact  to  the  murder  by  sword,  by 
starvation  and  thirst,  by  exposure,  by 
beating,  by  rape,  of  nearly  a  million 
human  beings,  whose  fault  was  that  they 
were  "in  the  way,"  and  whose  vulner- 
ability and  defencelessness  lay  in  the  sole 
fact  that  they  were  Christians? 


6o  The  Blackest  Page 

Since  Germany  has  persisted  in  refus- 
ing to  intervene  during  the  process  of  ex- 
termination, is  she  not  particeps  criminis  ? 

Ambassador  von  Wangenheim  declared 
to  Ambassador  Morgenthau  at  Constan- 
tinople that  Germany  could  not,  upon 
request  of  the  United  States,  intervene  in 
the  internal  affairs  of  Turkey.  Ambas- 
sador von  Bernstorff  at  Washington, 
when  he  saw  what  a  painful  impression 
the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  Armenian 
atrocities  were  producing  on  the  Ameri- 
can public,  at  first  denied  that  there  had 
been  massacres,  and,  later,  when  it  was 
impossible  to  maintain  his  denial  in  face 
of  established  facts,  declared  that  what 
had  happened  in  Turkey  was  a  perfectly 
justifiable  suppression  of  Armenian  re- 
bellions. 

In  one  large  city  of  Asiatic  Turkey,  an 


Of  Modern  History  6i 

American  missionary,  a  man  whom  I 
know  personally  and  whose  word  can  be 
trusted  implicitly,  saw  a  German  officer 
directing  the  artillery  fire  of  the  Ttirks 
upon  the  Armenian  civilian  popula- 
tion. In  two  other  places,  at  least, 
German  consuls  defended  the  Ottoman 
policy  both  of  massacre  and  of  deport- 
ation. 

On  the  broader  and  more  general  moral 
ground  of  responsibility  as  brother's 
keeper,  the  German,  who  alone  of  all 
European  nations  have  had,  and  still  have 
the  power  to  stop  these  massacres,  stand 
condemned.  It  is  going  to  be  difficult 
for  their  writers,  who  have  been  foremost 
in  extolling  the  Armenian  race,  its  virtues, 
and  its  contributions  to  civilization,  to 
defend  to  the  satisfaction  of  posterity  the 
inertia  of  the  German  Government  in  the 


62  The  Blackest  Page 


face  of  the  extermination  of  the  Armenian 
nation. 

That  they  kept  quiet,  and  refused  to 
act,  when  they  alone  could  have  saved 
the  Armenians  from  destruction,  is  the 
first  count  in  the  case  against  the  Germans. 
It  is  serious.    The  second  count  is  sinister. 

When  we  try  to  find  the  purpose 
behind  the  Armenian  massacres,  we  are 
confronted  with  what  is,  under  the  circimi- 
stances,  an  eloquent  accusation  against 
the  German  Government  and  the  German 
people.  The  Germans,  and  the  Germans 
alone,  will  benefit  hy  the  extermination  of 
the  Armenians.  I  have  pointed  out  above 
how  the  Armenians  are  the  essential 
factor,  the  guarantee  indeed,  of  Turkish 
economic  and  political  independence  in 
Asia  Minor.  By  the  same  token,  they 
appear  to  be  a  stumbling-block  to  German 


Of  Modern  History  63 

domination.  The  Armenians,  largely  edu- 
cated in  French  and  American  schools, 
speak  French  and  English.  Through 
their  commercial  relations  with  western 
Europe  and  America,  with  England  most 
of  all,  they  have  naturally  been  "in  the 
way'*  of  the  German  commercial  travel- 
lers. As  the  one  commercial  and  agri- 
cultural element  in  the  interior  of  Asia 
Minor,  capable  of  holding  its  own  against 
a  penetration  of  European  colonists,  the 
Armenians  are  "in  the  way"  of  the 
schemes  for  the  Germanization  of  Anato- 
lia. It  was  not  for  the  Bagdad  Railway 
alone,  but  also  for  all  that  the  Bagdad 
Railway  implied,  that  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II. 
fraternized  with  Abdul  Hamid,  after 
the  massacres  of  Armenians  in  1895  and 
1896. 

I  have  not  the  slightest  desire  to  be 


64  Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History 

unfair  to  Germans  as  individuals,  or  to 
insinuate  what  can  not  reasonably  be 
proved  to  be  in  the  German  mind. 
Enlightened  nations,  however,  are  cer- 
tainly responsible  for  the  acts  of  their 
Governments.  The  Germans  have  as- 
sumed the  responsibility  for  many  terrible 
things  in  this  war.  They  may  hope, 
when  passions  have  died  down  and  both 
sides  are  known,  to  clear  themselves  of 
some  charges.  But  there  is  no  hope  in 
regard  to  the  charge  of  allowing  the 
extermination  of  the  Armenians — a  crime 
by  which  they  alone  could  hope  to  benefit. 


CONCLUSION 

AND    now,    in    conclusion,    let    me 
pose  frankly  this  question:  Have 
neutral  nations  any  responsibility 
in  regard  to  the  Armenians? 

For  neutral  nations  in  general,  the 
answer  depends  upon  whether  the  in- 
fluence and  action  of  a  nation  ought  to  be 
confined  wholly  to  internal  affairs.  Those 
who  give  to  their  own  conscience  and  to 
God  the  answer  of  Cain,  say  frankly :  "No, 
we  are  not  our  brother's  keeper.  We 
have  all  that  we  can  do  to  look  after 
ourselves."  If  this  type  of  mentaHty 
had  controlled  the  councils  of  the  nations 
throughout   the   past   twenty   centuries, 

would  there  be  a  Christian  civilization? 
s  65 


66  The  Blackest  Page 


Would  history  be  able  to  record  a  single 
altruistic  deed  to  a  nation's  credit? 
Would  slavery  ever  have  been  abolished? 
The  other  type  is  composed  of  those 
who  believe  that  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  or  for  himself  alone,  and  that 
nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  have  re- 
sponsibilities towards  others — especially 
if  those  others  are  weak  and  oppressed. 

Let  us  leave  wholly  to  one  side  the 
argument  of  higher  morality,  this  abstract, 
intangible  argument,  which,  when  urged, 
causes  many  to  shrug  their  shoulders  and 
smile.  Let  us  come  to  the  concrete 
reason  for  the  direct  responsibility  of  two 
nations  to  intervene  on  behalf  of  the 
Armenians.  Among  neutral  and  passive 
onlookers,  who  have  been  silent  while  the 
darkest  page  of  modern  history  is  being 
written,  the  Americans  and  Swiss  should 


Of  Modern  History  67 

not  forget  that  their  money  and  their 
representatives  have  been  working  for 
two  generations  in  Turkey  to  elevate 
the  Armenians.  Together  with  French, 
British,  Germans,  and  ItaHans,  the  Ameri- 
cans and  Swiss  have  helped  to  reawaken 
the  national  spirit  of  the  Armenian 
nation.  They  have  infused  new  life  into 
the  Armenian  Church.  They  have  made 
researches  into  Armenian  history  and 
have  given  to  the  world  the  results  of  those 
researches.  They  have  taught  the  Arme- 
nians European  languages,  and  have  im- 
parted to  a  race  that  had  become  ignorant 
and  backward,  because  separated  from 
Europe,  the  spirit  of  Occidental  civili- 
zation. Were  they  seeking  out  victims  to 
deck  with  garlands  for  the  sacrifice  ?  Were 
they  fatting  the  calf  for  the  slaughter?  Do 
not   say   no!     For    the   practical   result 


68  Blackest  Page  of  Modern  History 

of  their  efforts  to  elevate  the  Armenian 
race  is  that  long  journey  from  home  to  the 
Valley  of  the  Euphrates — now  become 
the  Valley  of  Death. 

Let   us   think   hard.     And   then,    for 
God's  sake,  let  us  act! 


SOURCES 

1 .  Report  of  American  Committee  on  Arme- 
nian Atrocities.     New  York,  October,  19 15. 

The  report  contains  thirty-five  extracts  from  the  testi- 
mony of  eye-witnesses,  covering  the  period  April  2"]  to 
August  3,  1915,  from  all  parts  of  Asia  Minor.  Twenty- 
five  representative  Americans  (including  Hon.  Oscar  S» 
Strauss,  twice  American  Ambassador  to  Turkey,  Cardinal 
James  Gibbons,  Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise,  and  former 
President  Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard  University),  signed 
this  report,  which  states  that  each  bit  of  testimony  has 
been  subjected  to  careful  and  extensive  investigation, 
and  that  "the  sources  are  unquestioned  as  to  the  veracity, 
integrity,  and  authority  of  the  writers." 

2.  Official  report  of  the  Parliamentary  De- 
bate in  the  House  of  Lords,  on  Wednesday, 
October  6,  1915.  London,  Parliamentary  De- 
bates, H.  of  L.,  volume  xix.,  67. 

Interpellation  of  the  Earl  of  Cromer, "speech  of  Viscount 
Bryce,  and  comments  of  the  Marquess  of  Crewe. 

3.  Lord  Bryce*s  revision  and  enlargement  of 
the  official  report  of  his  speech,  as  given  in 
^'Armenian  Atrocities :  The  Murder  of  a  Nation," 

69 


70  The  Blackest  Page 

by   Arnold   J.   Toynbee.     London,   November, 
1915. 

4.  German  missionaries*  letters  to  the  Son- 
nenaufgang,  published  by  Deutscher  Hiilfsbund 
fiir  christliches  Liebeswerk  im  Orient. 

5.  Narrative  of  Dikran  Andreasian,  trans- 
lated by  Rev.  Stephen  Trowbridge,  and  pub- 
lished in  The  Star  of  the  East.  London,  November, 
1915. 

6.  Testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  published  in 
the  Boulogne-sur-Mer  Telegramme,  September 
17;  Paris  Temps,  September  15;  Limoges 
Courrier  du  Centre,  September  15;  Tribune  de 
Geneve,  September  4  and  24,  October  14;  Journal 
de  Geneve,  October  13  and  24;  Gazette  de  Lausanne ^ 
October  24;  New  York  Evening  Post,  October  18. 
Resumes  and  editorial  comments  in  Manchester 
Guardian,  August  16  and  October  26;  London 
Times,  October  8;  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  October 
9;  Paris-Midi,  October  17.  All  these  dates,  of 
course,  are  in  19 15. 

7.  Circular  letters  of  various  dates  from  July 
6  to  October  22,  19 15,  sent  out  by  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 
Boston,  Mass.,  which  are  signed  by  James  L. 
Barton. 


Of  Modern  History  71 

8.  A  number  of  as  yet  unpublished  personal 
letters.  For  obvious  reasons,  I  cannot  give  the 
names  of  the  writers,  and  the  places  from  which 
they  were  written. 

9.  Personal  conversations  with  persons  of 
unimpeachable  integrity  and  unquestioned  au- 
thority, who  have  returned  between  September 
15  and  November  20  from  Constantinople  and 
Asia  Minor.  Their  names  must  of  necessity  be 
withheld  at  this  moment. 


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